Tonight I pulled out my bottle of 17 YO Eagle Rare 90 proof straight bourbon whiskey and commenced to enjoy its nose most to distraction. It has a delicately sweet floral and fruity nose that almost makes you forget about drinking it............but not quite. Still, I passed the glass under my nose back and to many times cause the aromas are really seductive in their power.

No, y'all, I still ain't even yet took a sip. Time lets go of more orange and leather aromas. I am thinking of splashing a bit under my arms in the morning before I go to the YMCA and see do those young women pay me a bit more attention than they usual do..........but then my wife would be saying she don't know that old fool smelling of bourbon. Coming to my good senses now, I know that I ain't gone spare any of this stuff to see can I draw off any flighty birds. Besides a 68 year old man ort to act his own part.

Perfect soft sweetness, controlled rye bite...........controlled by the oak dryness. For the life of me I cannot lay my hands (or my mind) on what it is in older bourbons and oak barrels that sometimes makes them so good. There is a lightness in them so that they almost slip across the palate. Then there is a soft and deeply penetrating set of flavors that both taunt and please, tempt and tease. There is a great satisfaction, but one that also leaves a longing.

This, like all great bourbons, is feminine in character, lodging itself in your very soul. The essence of it is to remain just out of reach, but always revealing just enough of itself to keep you in its thrall

I stop now before this beauty takes me deeper into dangerous places.

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas

I have taken up one of Mike's previous posts and am comparing Old Forester Signature with Woodford Reserve. I have sipped both neat over the last two evenings. I think WR is a superior bourbon. IMHO it offers a little more complexity although I think both are superb bourbons.

I got a bottle of OGD BIB recently and although I'm not exactly breaking new ground here I think it is a really great drink and if bought in the US an absolute steal, if I lived in the US I think this would be my "daily" or "house" pour. So moreish, I drank half the bottle in no time (paid the Piper next morning though!!). Really love it, top stuff.

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy" - Dorothy Parker

In honor of Gary Gillman's review of the 23 YO Rittenhouse Rye, I am sipping some 21 YO Rittenhouse.

A wonderfully soft nose for a straight rye whiskey.........the 100 proof alcohol is coy and the fruity and spicy rye aromas are warming up in the background. The first sip is mildly sweet........then the zingy spice brings the mid-palate to full attention for a warm minute...........then the thick sweet plasters the back of the throat............and for a finale the spice dances its way through the back of the mouth and down the gullet.

A sophisticated, rich, fruity/spicy drink that is almost delicate for a straight rye. First rate stuff.

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2000. Barrel # 589. Barreled on 12-01-2000, and bottled on 05-03-2010. Excellent whiskey to be sure! I really like this years' expression. Very tasty - even mystical. Wonderful nose - walnuts and nugat. Buttery finish that is unusual in any bourbon. A unique pour that is unlike any Evan Williams before. Try some.